Method and apparatus to facilitate support for multi-radio coexistence

ABSTRACT

Interference between potentially conflicting radio access technologies (RATs) in a wireless device may be managed through a coexistence manager. The coexistence manager allows a first active RAT to yield conflicting resources to a second idle RAT for purposes of receiving signals to allow proper operation by the second RAT. These signals may be, for example, paging signals to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio or beacons to a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/319,123 entitled “LTE AND WLAN COEXISTENCE SOLUTIONS,” filed Mar. 30, 2010, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

This application is related to commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed ______ (Attorney docket 100819U2) in the names of T. KADOUS et al. and commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed ______ (Attorney docket 100819U3) in the names of T. KADOUS et al., the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present description is related, generally, to multi-radio techniques and, more specifically, to coexistence techniques for multi-radio devices.

BACKGROUND

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.

Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system can simultaneously support communication for multiple wireless terminals. Each terminal communicates with one or more base stations via transmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. This communication link may be established via a single-in-single-out, multiple-in-single-out or a multiple-in-multiple out (MIMO) system.

Some conventional advanced devices include multiple radios for transmitting/receiving using different Radio Access Technologies (RATs). Examples of RATs include, e.g., Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), cdma2000, WiMAX, WLAN (e.g., WiFi), Bluetooth, LTE, and the like.

An example mobile device includes an LTE User Equipment (UE), such as a fourth generation (4G) mobile phone. Such 4G phone may include various radios to provide a variety of functions for the user. For purposes of this example, the 4G phone includes an LTE radio for voice and data, an IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) radio, a Global Positioning System (GPS) radio, and a Bluetooth radio, where two of the above or all four may operate simultaneously. While the different radios provide useful functionalities for the phone, their inclusion in a single device gives rise to coexistence issues. Specifically, operation of one radio may in some cases interfere with operation of another radio through radiative, conductive, resource collision, and/or other interference mechanisms. Coexistence issues include such interference.

This is especially true for the LTE uplink channel, which is adjacent to the Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band and may cause interference therewith It is noted that Bluetooth and some Wireless LAN (WLAN) channels fall within the ISM band. In some instances, a Bluetooth error rate can become unacceptable when LTE is active in some channels of Band 7 or even Band 40 for some Bluetooth channel conditions. Even though there is no significant degradation to LTE, simultaneous operation with Bluetooth can result in disruption in voice services terminating in a Bluetooth headset. Such disruption may be unacceptable to the consumer. A similar issue exists when LTE transmissions interfere with GPS. Currently, there is no mechanism that can solve this issue since LTE by itself does not experience any degradation

With reference specifically to LTE, it is noted that a UE communicates with an evolved NodeB (eNB; e.g., a base station for a wireless communications network) to inform the eNB of interference seen by the UE on the downlink. Furthermore, the eNB may be able to estimate interference at the UE using a downlink error rate. In some instances, the eNB and the UE can cooperate to find a solution that reduces interference at the UE, even interference due to radios within the UE itself. However, in conventional LTE, the interference estimates regarding the downlink may not be adequate to comprehensively address interference.

In one instance, an LTE uplink signal interferes with a Bluetooth signal or WLAN signal. However, such interference is not reflected in the downlink measurement reports at the eNB. As a result, unilateral action on the part of the UE (e.g., moving the uplink signal to a different channel) may be thwarted by the eNB, which is not aware of the uplink coexistence issue and seeks to undo the unilateral action. For instance, even if the UE re-establishes the connection on a different frequency channel, the network can still handover the UE back to the original frequency channel that was corrupted by the in-device interference. This is a likely scenario because the desired signal strength on the corrupted channel may sometimes be higher be reflected in the measurement reports of the new channel based on Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) to the eNB. Hence, a ping-pong effect of being transferred back and forth between the corrupted channel and the desired channel can happen if the eNB uses RSRP reports to make handover decisions.

Other unilateral action on the part of the UE, such as simply stopping uplink communications without coordination of the eNB may cause power loop malfunctions at the eNB. Additional issues that exist in conventional LTE include a general lack of ability on the part of the UE to suggest desired configurations as an alternative to configurations that have coexistence issues. For at least these reasons, uplink coexistence issues at the UE may remain unresolved for a long time period, degrading performance and efficiency for other radios of the UE.

SUMMARY

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be described below. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this disclosure may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosure. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the teachings of the disclosure as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features, which are believed to be characteristic of the disclosure, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages, will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present disclosure.

A method for wireless communication is offered. The method includes actively communicating on a first radio access technology (RAT). The method also includes maintaining a second RAT in an inactive state. The method further includes yielding potentially interfering resources from the first RAT to the second RAT. The method further includes receiving an activity indicator of the second RAT using the potentially interfering resources.

An apparatus operable for wireless communication is offered. The apparatus includes means for actively communicating on a first radio access technology (RAT). The apparatus also includes means for maintaining a second RAT in an inactive state. The apparatus further includes means for yielding potentially interfering resources from the first RAT to the second RAT. The apparatus further includes means for receiving an activity indicator of the second RAT using the potentially interfering resources.

A computer program product configured for wireless communication is offered. The computer program product includes a computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon. The program code includes program code to actively communicate on a first radio access technology (RAT). The program code also includes program code to maintain a second RAT in an inactive state. The program code further includes program code to yield potentially interfering resources from the first RAT to the second RAT. The program code further includes program code to receive an activity indicator of the second RAT using the potentially interfering resources.

An apparatus configured for operation in a wireless communication network is offered. The apparatus includes a memory and a processor(s) coupled to the memory. The processor(s) is configured to actively communicate on a first radio access technology (RAT). The processor(s) is also configured to maintain a second RAT in an inactive state. The processor(s) is further configured to yield potentially interfering resources from the first RAT to the second RAT. The processor is further configured to receive an activity indicator of the second RAT using the potentially interfering resources.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features, nature, and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters identify correspondingly throughout.

FIG. 1 illustrates a multiple access wireless communication system according to one aspect.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a communication system according to one aspect.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary frame structure in downlink Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exemplary frame structure in uplink Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example wireless communication environment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example design for a multi-radio wireless device.

FIG. 7 is graph showing respective potential collisions between seven example radios in a given decision period.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing operation of an example Coexistence Manager (C×M) over time.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a system for providing support within a wireless communication environment for multi-radio coexistence management according to one aspect.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a system for providing support within a wireless communication environment for multi-radio coexistence management according to one aspect.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects of the disclosure provide techniques to mitigate coexistence issues in multi-radio devices, where significant in-device coexistence problems can exist between, e.g., the LTE and Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands (e.g., for BT/WLAN). As explained above, some coexistence issues persist because an eNB is not aware of interference on the UE side that is experienced by other radios. According to one aspect, the UE declares a Radio Link Failure (RLF) and autonomously accesses a new channel or Radio Access Technology (RAT) if there is a coexistence issue on the present channel. The UE can declare a RLF in some examples for the following reasons: 1) UE reception is affected by interference due to coexistence, and 2) the UE transmitter is causing disruptive interference to another radio. The UE then sends a message indicating the coexistence issue to the eNB while reestablishing connection in the new channel or RAT. The eNB becomes aware of the coexistence issue by virtue of having received the message.

The techniques described herein can be used for various wireless communication networks such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks, etc. The terms “networks” and “systems” are often used interchangeably. A CDMA network can implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and Low Chip Rate (LCR). cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network can implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA network can implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM®, etc. UTRA, E-UTRA, and GSM are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). Long Term Evolution (LTE) is an upcoming release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, GSM, UMTS and LTE are described in documents from an organization named “3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP). cdma2000 is described in documents from an organization named “3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). These various radio technologies and standards are known in the art. For clarity, certain aspects of the techniques are described below for LTE, and LTE terminology is used in portions of the description below.

Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), which utilizes single carrier modulation and frequency domain equalization is a technique that can be utilized with various aspects described herein. SC-FDMA has similar performance and essentially the same overall complexity as those of an OFDMA system. SC-FDMA signal has lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) because of its inherent single carrier structure. SC-FDMA has drawn great attention, especially in the uplink communications where lower PAPR greatly benefits the mobile terminal in terms of transmit power efficiency. It is currently a working assumption for an uplink multiple access scheme in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), or Evolved UTRA.

Referring to FIG. 1, a multiple access wireless communication system according to one aspect is illustrated. An evolved Node B 100 (eNB) includes a computer 115 that has processing resources and memory resources to manage the LTE communications by allocating resources and parameters, granting/denying requests from user equipment, and/or the like. The eNB 100 also has multiple antenna groups, one group including antenna 104 and antenna 106, another group including antenna 108 and antenna 110, and an additional group including antenna 112 and antenna 114. In FIG. 1, only two antennas are shown for each antenna group, however, more or fewer antennas can be utilized for each antenna group. A User Equipment (UE) 116 (also referred to as an Access Terminal (AT)) is in communication with antennas 112 and 114, while antennas 112 and 114 transmit information to the UE 116 over an uplink (UL) 188. The UE 122 is in communication with antennas 106 and 108, while antennas 106 and 108 transmit information to the UE 122 over a downlink (DL) 126 and receive information from the UE 122 over an uplink 124. In an FDD system, communication links 118, 120, 124 and 126 can use different frequencies for communication. For example, the downlink 120 can use a different frequency than used by the uplink 118.

Each group of antennas and/or the area in which they are designed to communicate is often referred to as a sector of the eNB. In this aspect, respective antenna groups are designed to communicate to UEs in a sector of the areas covered by the eNB 100.

In communication over the downlinks 120 and 126, the transmitting antennas of the eNB 100 utilize beamforming to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the uplinks for the different UEs 116 and 122. Also, an eNB using beamforming to transmit to UEs scattered randomly through its coverage causes less interference to UEs in neighboring cells than a UE transmitting through a single antenna to all its UEs.

An eNB can be a fixed station used for communicating with the terminals and can also be referred to as an access point, base station, or some other terminology. A UE can also be called an access terminal, a wireless communication device, terminal, or some other terminology.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an aspect of a transmitter system 210 (also known as an eNB) and a receiver system 250 (also known as a UE) in a MIMO system 200. In some instances, both a UE and an eNB each have a transceiver that includes a transmitter system and a receiver system. At the transmitter system 210, traffic data for a number of data streams is provided from a data source 212 to a transmit (TX) data processor 214.

A MIMO system employs multiple (N_(T)) transmit antennas and multiple (N_(R)) receive antennas for data transmission. A MIMO channel formed by the N_(T) transmit and N_(R) receive antennas may be decomposed into N_(S) independent channels, which are also referred to as spatial channels, wherein N_(S)≦min {N_(T), N_(R)}. Each of the N_(S) independent channels corresponds to a dimension. The MIMO system can provide improved performance (e.g., higher throughput and/or greater reliability) if the additional dimensionalities created by the multiple transmit and receive antennas are utilized.

A MIMO system supports time division duplex (TDD) and frequency division duplex (FDD) systems. In a TDD system, the uplink and downlink transmissions are on the same frequency region so that the reciprocity principle allows the estimation of the downlink channel from the uplink channel. This enables the eNB to extract transmit beamforming gain on the downlink when multiple antennas are available at the eNB.

In an aspect, each data stream is transmitted over a respective transmit antenna. The TX data processor 214 formats, codes, and interleaves the traffic data for each data stream based on a particular coding scheme selected for that data stream to provide coded data.

The coded data for each data stream can be multiplexed with pilot data using OFDM techniques. The pilot data is a known data pattern processed in a known manner and can be used at the receiver system to estimate the channel response. The multiplexed pilot and coded data for each data stream is then modulated (e.g., symbol mapped) based on a particular modulation scheme (e.g., BPSK, QSPK, M-PSK, or M-QAM) selected for that data stream to provide modulation symbols. The data rate, coding, and modulation for each data stream can be determined by instructions performed by a processor 230 operating with a memory 232.

The modulation symbols for respective data streams are then provided to a TX MIMO processor 220, which can further process the modulation symbols (e.g., for OFDM). The TX MIMO processor 220 then provides N_(T) modulation symbol streams to N_(T) transmitters (TMTR) 222 a through 222 t. In certain aspects, the TX MIMO processor 220 applies beamforming weights to the symbols of the data streams and to the antenna from which the symbol is being transmitted.

Each transmitter 222 receives and processes a respective symbol stream to provide one or more analog signals, and further conditions (e.g., amplifies, filters, and upconverts) the analog signals to provide a modulated signal suitable for transmission over the MIMO channel. N_(T) modulated signals from the transmitters 222 a through 222 t are then transmitted from N_(T) antennas 224 a through 224 t, respectively.

At a receiver system 250, the transmitted modulated signals are received by N_(R) antennas 252 a through 252 r and the received signal from each antenna 252 is provided to a respective receiver (RCVR) 254 a through 254 r. Each receiver 254 conditions (e.g., filters, amplifies, and downconverts) a respective received signal, digitizes the conditioned signal to provide samples, and further processes the samples to provide a corresponding “received” symbol stream.

An RX data processor 260 then receives and processes the N_(R) received symbol streams from N_(R) receivers 254 based on a particular receiver processing technique to provide N_(R) “detected” symbol streams. The RX data processor 260 then demodulates, deinterleaves, and decodes each detected symbol stream to recover the traffic data for the data stream. The processing by the RX data processor 260 is complementary to the processing performed by the TX MIMO processor 220 and the TX data processor 214 at the transmitter system 210.

A processor 270 (operating with a memory 272) periodically determines which pre-coding matrix to use (discussed below). The processor 270 formulates an uplink message having a matrix index portion and a rank value portion.

The uplink message can include various types of information regarding the communication link and/or the received data stream. The uplink message is then processed by a TX data processor 238, which also receives traffic data for a number of data streams from a data source 236, modulated by a modulator 280, conditioned by transmitters 254 a through 254 r, and transmitted back to the transmitter system 210.

At the transmitter system 210, the modulated signals from the receiver system 250 are received by antennas 224, conditioned by receivers 222, demodulated by a demodulator 240, and processed by an RX data processor 242 to extract the uplink message transmitted by the receiver system 250. The processor 230 then determines which pre-coding matrix to use for determining the beamforming weights, then processes the extracted message.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exemplary frame structure in downlink Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications. The transmission timeline for the downlink may be partitioned into units of radio frames. Each radio frame may have a predetermined duration (e.g., 10 milliseconds (ms)) and may be partitioned into 10 subframes with indices of 0 through 9. Each subframe may include two slots. Each radio frame may thus include 20 slots with indices of 0 through 19. Each slot may include L symbol periods, e.g., 7 symbol periods for a normal cyclic prefix (as shown in FIG. 3) or 6 symbol periods for an extended cyclic prefix. The 2L symbol periods in each subframe may be assigned indices of 0 through 2L−1. The available time frequency resources may be partitioned into resource blocks. Each resource block may cover N subcarriers (e.g., 12 subcarriers) in one slot.

In LTE, an eNB may send a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) for each cell in the eNB. The PSS and SSS may be sent in symbol periods 6 and 5, respectively, in each of subframes 0 and 5 of each radio frame with the normal cyclic prefix, as shown in FIG. 3. The synchronization signals may be used by UEs for cell detection and acquisition. The eNB may send a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) in symbol periods 0 to 3 in slot 1 of subframe 0. The PBCH may carry certain system information.

The eNB may send a Cell-specific Reference Signal (CRS) for each cell in the eNB. The CRS may be sent in symbols 0, 1, and 4 of each slot in case of the normal cyclic prefix, and in symbols 0, 1, and 3 of each slot in case of the extended cyclic prefix. The CRS may be used by UEs for coherent demodulation of physical channels, timing and frequency tracking, Radio Link Monitoring (RLM), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) measurements, etc.

The eNB may send a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) in the first symbol period of each subframe, as seen in FIG. 3. The PCFICH may convey the number of symbol periods (M) used for control channels, where M may be equal to 1, 2 or 3 and may change from subframe to subframe. M may also be equal to 4 for a small system bandwidth, e.g., with less than 10 resource blocks. In the example shown in FIG. 3, M=3. The eNB may send a Physical HARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) and a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) in the first M symbol periods of each subframe. The PDCCH and PHICH are also included in the first three symbol periods in the example shown in FIG. 3. The PHICH may carry information to support Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ). The PDCCH may carry information on resource allocation for UEs and control information for downlink channels. The eNB may send a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in the remaining symbol periods of each subframe. The PDSCH may carry data for UEs scheduled for data transmission on the downlink. The various signals and channels in LTE are described in 3GPP TS 36.211, entitled “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation,” which is publicly available.

The eNB may send the PSS, SSS and PBCH in the center 1.08 MHz of the system bandwidth used by the eNB. The eNB may send the PCFICH and PHICH across the entire system bandwidth in each symbol period in which these channels are sent. The eNB may send the PDCCH to groups of UEs in certain portions of the system bandwidth. The eNB may send the PDSCH to specific UEs in specific portions of the system bandwidth. The eNB may send the PSS, SSS, PBCH, PCFICH and PHICH in a broadcast manner to all UEs, may send the PDCCH in a unicast manner to specific UEs, and may also send the PDSCH in a unicast manner to specific UEs.

A number of resource elements may be available in each symbol period. Each resource element may cover one subcarrier in one symbol period and may be used to send one modulation symbol, which may be a real or complex value. Resource elements not used for a reference signal in each symbol period may be arranged into resource element groups (REGs). Each REG may include four resource elements in one symbol period. The PCFICH may occupy four REGs, which may be spaced approximately equally across frequency, in symbol period 0. The PHICH may occupy three REGs, which may be spread across frequency, in one or more configurable symbol periods. For example, the three REGs for the PHICH may all belong in symbol period 0 or may be spread in symbol periods 0, 1 and 2. The PDCCH may occupy 9, 18, 32 or 64 REGs, which may be selected from the available REGs, in the first M symbol periods. Only certain combinations of REGs may be allowed for the PDCCH.

A UE may know the specific REGs used for the PHICH and the PCFICH. The UE may search different combinations of REGs for the PDCCH. The number of combinations to search is typically less than the number of allowed combinations for the PDCCH. An eNB may send the PDCCH to the UE in any of the combinations that the UE will search.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exemplary frame structure 300 in uplink Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications. The available Resource Blocks (RBs) for the uplink may be partitioned into a data section and a control section. The control section may be formed at the two edges of the system bandwidth and may have a configurable size. The resource blocks in the control section may be assigned to UEs for transmission of control information. The data section may include all resource blocks not included in the control section. The design in FIG. 4 results in the data section including contiguous subcarriers, which may allow a single UE to be assigned all of the contiguous subcarriers in the data section.

A UE may be assigned resource blocks in the control section to transmit control information to an eNB. The UE may also be assigned resource blocks in the data section to transmit data to the eNodeB. The UE may transmit control information in a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) on the assigned resource blocks in the control section. The UE may transmit only data or both data and control information in a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on the assigned resource blocks in the data section. An uplink transmission may span both slots of a subframe and may hop across frequency as shown in FIG. 4.

The PSS, SSS, CRS, PBCH, PUCCH and PUSCH in LTE are described in 3GPP TS 36.211, entitled “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation,” which is publicly available.

In an aspect, described herein are systems and methods for providing support within a wireless communication environment, such as a 3GPP LTE environment or the like, to facilitate multi-radio coexistence solutions.

Referring now to FIG. 5, illustrated is an example wireless communication environment 500 in which various aspects described herein can function. The wireless communication environment 500 can include a wireless device 510, which can be capable of communicating with multiple communication systems. These systems can include, for example, one or more cellular systems 520 and/or 530, one or more WLAN systems 540 and/or 550, one or more wireless personal area network (WPAN) systems 560, one or more broadcast systems 570, one or more satellite positioning systems 580, other systems not shown in FIG. 5, or any combination thereof. It should be appreciated that in the following description the terms “network” and “system” are often used interchangeably.

The cellular systems 520 and 530 can each be a CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), or other suitable system. A CDMA system can implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. Moreover, cdma2000 covers IS-2000 (CDMA2000 1X), IS-95 and IS-856 (HRPD) standards. A TDMA system can implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System (D-AMPS), etc. An OFDMA system can implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM®, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are new releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described in documents from an organization named “3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named “3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). In an aspect, the cellular system 520 can include a number of base stations 522, which can support bi-directional communication for wireless devices within their coverage. Similarly, the cellular system 530 can include a number of base stations 532 that can support bi-directional communication for wireless devices within their coverage.

WLAN systems 540 and 550 can respectively implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), Hiperlan, etc. The WLAN system 540 can include one or more access points 542 that can support bi-directional communication. Similarly, the WLAN system 550 can include one or more access points 552 that can support bi-directional communication. The WPAN system 560 can implement a radio technology such as Bluetooth (BT), IEEE 802.15, etc. Further, the WPAN system 560 can support bi-directional communication for various devices such as wireless device 510, a headset 562, a computer 564, a mouse 566, or the like.

The broadcast system 570 can be a television (TV) broadcast system, a frequency modulation (FM) broadcast system, a digital broadcast system, etc. A digital broadcast system can implement a radio technology such as MediaFLO™, Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H), Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting for Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (ISDB-T), or the like. Further, the broadcast system 570 can include one or more broadcast stations 572 that can support one-way communication.

The satellite positioning system 580 can be the United States Global Positioning System (GPS), the European Galileo system, the Russian GLONASS system, the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) over Japan, the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) over India, the Beidou system over China, and/or any other suitable system. Further, the satellite positioning system 580 can include a number of satellites 582 that transmit signals for position determination.

In an aspect, the wireless device 510 can be stationary or mobile and can also be referred to as a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a mobile equipment, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a station, etc. The wireless device 510 can be cellular phone, a personal digital assistance (PDA), a wireless modem, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, etc. In addition, a wireless device 510 can engage in two-way communication with the cellular system 520 and/or 530, the WLAN system 540 and/or 550, devices with the WPAN system 560, and/or any other suitable systems(s) and/or devices(s). The wireless device 510 can additionally or alternatively receive signals from the broadcast system 570 and/or satellite positioning system 580. In general, it can be appreciated that the wireless device 510 can communicate with any number of systems at any given moment. Also, the wireless device 510 may experience coexistence issues among various ones of its constituent radio devices that operate at the same time. Accordingly, device 510 includes a coexistence manager (C×M, not shown) that has a functional module to detect and mitigate coexistence issues, as explained further below.

Turning next to FIG. 6, a block diagram is provided that illustrates an example design for a multi-radio wireless device 600 and may be used as an implementation of the radio 510 of FIG. 5. As FIG. 6 illustrates, the wireless device 600 can include N radios 620 a through 620 n, which can be coupled to N antennas 610 a through 610 n, respectively, where N can be any integer value. It should be appreciated, however, that respective radios 620 can be coupled to any number of antennas 610 and that multiple radios 620 can also share a given antenna 610.

In general, a radio 620 can be a unit that radiates or emits energy in an electromagnetic spectrum, receives energy in an electromagnetic spectrum, or generates energy that propagates via conductive means. By way of example, a radio 620 can be a unit that transmits a signal to a system or a device or a unit that receives signals from a system or device. Accordingly, it can be appreciated that a radio 620 can be utilized to support wireless communication. In another example, a radio 620 can also be a unit (e.g., a screen on a computer, a circuit board, etc.) that emits noise, which can impact the performance of other radios. Accordingly, it can be further appreciated that a radio 620 can also be a unit that emits noise and interference without supporting wireless communication.

In an aspect, respective radios 620 can support communication with one or more systems. Multiple radios 620 can additionally or alternatively be used for a given system, e.g., to transmit or receive on different frequency bands (e.g., cellular and PCS bands).

In another aspect, a digital processor 630 can be coupled to radios 620 a through 620 n and can perform various functions, such as processing for data being transmitted or received via the radios 620. The processing for each radio 620 can be dependent on the radio technology supported by that radio and can include encryption, encoding, modulation, etc., for a transmitter; demodulation, decoding, decryption, etc., for a receiver, or the like. In one example, the digital processor 630 can include a C×M 640 that can control operation of the radios 620 in order to improve the performance of the wireless device 600 as generally described herein. The C×M 640 can have access to a database 644, which can store information used to control the operation of the radios 620. As explained further below, the C×M 640 can be adapted for a variety of techniques to decrease interference between the radios. In one example, the C×M 640 requests a measurement gap pattern or DRX cycle that allows an ISM radio to communicate during periods of LTE inactivity.

For simplicity, digital processor 630 is shown in FIG. 6 as a single processor. However, it should be appreciated that the digital processor 630 can include any number of processors, controllers, memories, etc. In one example, a controller/processor 650 can direct the operation of various units within the wireless device 600. Additionally or alternatively, a memory 652 can store program codes and data for the wireless device 600. The digital processor 630, controller/processor 650, and memory 652 can be implemented on one or more integrated circuits (ICs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc. By way of specific, non-limiting example, the digital processor 630 can be implemented on a Mobile Station Modem (MSM) ASIC.

In an aspect, the C×M 640 can manage operation of respective radios 620 utilized by wireless device 600 in order to avoid interference and/or other performance degradation associated with collisions between respective radios 620. C×M 640 may perform one or more processes, such as those illustrated in FIG. 10. By way of further illustration, a graph 700 in FIG. 7 represents respective potential collisions between seven example radios in a given decision period. In the example shown in graph 700, the seven radios include a WLAN transmitter (Tw), an LTE transmitter (Tl), an FM transmitter (Tf), a GSM/WCDMA transmitter (Tc/Tw), an LTE receiver (Rl), a Bluetooth receiver (Rb), and a GPS receiver (Rg). The four transmitters are represented by four nodes on the left side of the graph 700. The four receivers are represented by three nodes on the right side of the graph 700.

A potential collision between a transmitter and a receiver is represented on the graph 700 by a branch connecting the node for the transmitter and the node for the receiver. Accordingly, in the example shown in the graph 700, collisions may exist between (1) the WLAN transmitter (Tw) and the Bluetooth receiver (Rb); (2) the LTE transmitter (Tl) and the Bluetooth receiver (Rb); (3) the WLAN transmitter (Tw) and the LTE receiver (Rl); (4) the FM transmitter (Tf) and the GPS receiver (Rg); (5) a WLAN transmitter (Tw), a GSM/WCDMA transmitter (Tc/Tw), and a GPS receiver (Rg).

In one aspect, an example C×M 640 can operate in time in a manner such as that shown by diagram 800 in FIG. 8. As diagram 800 illustrates, a timeline for C×M operation can be divided into Decision Units (DUs), which can be any suitable uniform or non-uniform length (e.g., 100 μs) where notifications are processed, and a response phase (e.g., 20 μs) where commands are provided to various radios 620 and/or other operations are performed based on actions taken in the evaluation phase. In one example, the timeline shown in the diagram 800 can have a latency parameter defined by a worst case operation of the timeline, e.g., the timing of a response in the case that a notification is obtained from a given radio immediately following termination of the notification phase in a given DU.

In-device coexistence problems can exist with respect to a UE between resources such as, for example, LTE and ISM bands (e.g., for Bluetooth/WLAN). In current LTE implementations, any interference issues to LTE are reflected in the DL measurements (e.g., Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) metrics, etc.) reported by a UE and/or the DL error rate which the eNB can use to make inter-frequency or inter-RAT handoff decisions to, e.g., move LTE to a channel or RAT with no coexistence issues. However, it can be appreciated that these existing techniques will not work if, for example, the LTE UL is causing interference to Bluetooth/WLAN but the LTE DL does not see any interference from Bluetooth/WLAN. More particularly, even if the UE autonomously moves itself to another channel on the UL, the eNB can in some cases handover the UE back to the problematic channel for load balancing purposes. In any case, it can be appreciated that existing techniques do not facilitate use of the bandwidth of the problematic channel in the most efficient way.

Turning now to FIG. 9, a block diagram of a system 900 for providing support within a wireless communication environment for multi-radio coexistence management is illustrated. In an aspect, the system 900 can include one or more UEs 910 and/or eNBs 930, which can engage in UL, DL, and/or any other suitable communication with each other and/or any other entities in the system 900. In one example, the UE 910 and/or eNB 930 can be operable to communicate using a variety of resources, including frequency channels and sub-bands, some of which can potentially be colliding with other radio resources (e.g., a Bluetooth radio). Thus, the UE 910 can utilize various techniques for managing coexistence between multiple radios of the UE 910, as generally described herein.

To mitigate at least the above shortcomings, the UE 910 can utilize respective features described herein and illustrated by the system 900 to facilitate support for multi-radio coexistence within the UE 910. The channel monitoring module 912, channel coexistence analyzer 914, state monitor module 916, and radio scheduling module 916, may, in some examples described below, be implemented as part of a coexistence manager such as the C×M 640 of FIG. 6 to implement the aspects discussed herein. Thus, for example, a channel monitoring module 912, with the aid of a channel coexistence analyzer 914 and/or other components, can monitor one or more communication channels utilized by the UE 910 and monitor such channels for coexistence issues. The state monitor module 916 may monitor the state (e.g., active/idle states, etc.) of radio use and the radio scheduling module 916 may schedule radio use. The monitoring recognizes that unacceptable performance occurs or is expected to occur due to interference. In one example, a device with multiple radios is equipped to detect interference. Additionally or alternatively, the device may be programmed to know that when certain radios use certain channels, coexistence issues are present. Additionally or alternatively, the device may be programmed to know that certain radios operating at the same time will have coexistence issues. The modules shown in FIG. 9 may be used by the C×M 640 to manage collisions between respective radios 620 by scheduling the respective radios 620 so as to reduce or minimize collisions to the extent possible.

In an aspect, various radios 620 in a wireless device 600 may operate in a Basic Service Set (BSS) mode, such as infrastructure BSS mode or the like. Further, as noted above, one objective of the C×M 640 may be to reduce or minimize collisions between radios 620 to the extent possible. Accordingly, if an LTE radio and WLAN radio are in an infrastructure BSS mode, the C×M 640 may configure operation within the wireless device 600 such that all active applications and traffic may be camped on a single technology. For example, offloading of one or more applications from LTE to WLAN may, in some cases, be desirable from an operator point of view and may avoid collision between the two radios. Additionally or alternatively, using a single technology (e.g., WLAN) may in some cases yield better performance than using two technologies simultaneously and arbitrating if coexistence issues are present.

In other use cases simultaneous operation may be employed, such as when a mobile device acts as an internet “hotspot” as with MiFi (e.g., soft Access Point (AP)) or the like. In MiFi, a terminal (operating as an access point) communicates with local devices using WiFi but connects to the internet using LTE rather than through a hard wired cable, i.e. wireless backhaul using LTE. In this scenario LTE and WLAN operate simultaneously. In such cases, radio management may in some cases be achieved based on WLAN channel selection. A solution may perform well for various scenarios (e.g., band class (BC) 40) but less desirably for other scenarios (e.g., BC7, in the case of LTE reception or the like). Thus, if channel selection is not possible or effective, timeline alignment and/or arbitration may in some cases be employed.

LTE may operate in one of two Radio Resource Control (RRC) states, inactive (idle) or connected. These states may be represented as RRC_IDLE and RRC_CONNECTED respectively. Techniques for LTE/WLAN management are provided below in the context of three distinct use cases: (1) LTE is in RRC_IDLE and listening to pages while WLAN is active; (2) LTE is in RRC_CONNECTED while WLAN is searching for/listening to beacons (idle); and (3) both LTE and WLAN are active.

When one radio is active and the other is idle, the majority of communication resources may be dedicated to the active radio while preserving certain important messages for the idle radio. For example, in the case that WLAN is active while LTE is in RRC_IDLE and listening to pages, some or all of the following techniques may be implemented in the case of BC7. Normally in BC7, LTE can receive without interference due to the distance between the LTE downlink frequency in the spectrum of BC7 and the ISM/WLAN. LTE transmissions, however, are more likely to cause interference because of the closer proximity between the LTE uplink frequency and the ISM/WLAN spectrum. Thus, in BC7 LTE may listen for paging messages without interference. When a paging message is heard, however, the previously idle LTE radio may be allotted communication resources to respond to the page. In an aspect, for LTE reception during a paging occasion, it may in some cases not be necessary to take any action while listening to pages, performing link quality measurement/cell reselection, and/or system information block (SIB) update (e.g., conducted once every few hours or even less frequently).

Alternatively, if there is a page, or the system enters into connected mode for other reasons (e.g., tracking area update, etc.), a power management (PM)=1 message may be sent to the WLAN radio, putting the WLAN radio into power save mode allowing temporary suspension of WLAN activity. A Power Save Poll (PS-Poll) message may be used to communicate between the WLAN radio and WLAN access point (AP) to enter and exit power save mode for the WLAN radio, thereby controlling the starting and stopping of communications between the WLAN radio and the access point. Operation in this manner may be configured to wait for an ACK signal from the WLAN radio prior to instigating power save mode (otherwise, the PM bit may be re-transmitted). Further, operation in this manner may be configured with a predetermined drain period (e.g., approximately 10 ms).

In some cases, UE uplink (UL) transmission using LTE may be deferred in the case of a page and/or other entry into connected mode. More particularly, if a UE is out of sync due to being idle for an extended time period, the UE may defer the timing of sending UL Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) until the WLAN radio has entered power save mode, so as not to collide with an expected WLAN reception for a PM bit response. The UE may determine whether the WLAN radio has entered power save mode by measuring WLAN activity using shared communication resources. Further, a UE in some cases may control the timing of UL Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) traffic (e.g., Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (ACK/NACK), Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), Scheduling Request (SR), etc.) to wait until the WLAN radio has entered power save mode.

In another example, when WLAN is active while LTE is in RRC_IDLE and listening to pages and BC40 is utilized, some or all of the following techniques may be implemented. Normally, in BC40 LTE may have difficulty listening for a page because the LTE frequency is near the ISM/WLAN band, and BC40 and is time division duplexed (TDD), so LTE receive and transmit is on the same frequency only at different allotted times. In this situation, a sleep clock may be employed to wake the LTE radio from an idle state near when a paging occurrence may be expected so that the LTE radio can wake and listen for any potential paging messages. While LTE is listening, the UE may put WLAN into power save mode (as described above) so the LTE radio may communicate without interference. In an aspect, for LTE reception during a paging occasion (e.g., approximately 1 ms in duration), it may be desirable to ensure that WLAN is not transmitting during that window to avoid interfering with the LTE page. In one example, WLAN UL ACK (e.g., for DL) may be permitted to transmit given that such a transmission only occupies approximately 20 μs. Further, for SIB updates, communication may be configured such that WLAN will not transmit during the LTE reception (Rx) portion.

Alternatively, if there is a page, or the system enters into connected mode for other reasons (e.g., tracking area update, etc.), a PM=1 message may be sent to the WLAN access point during an unused LTE transmission (Tx) portion. In one example, operation in this manner may be configured with a predetermined drain period. In another example, techniques such as those described for BC7 above may be utilized to defer LTE Tx transmission in the BC40 case.

In a further aspect, in the case when LTE is active while WLAN is listening for beacons, some or all of the following techniques may be utilized. WLAN operation may permit a certain number of dropped beacons, but a certain number of beacons for each specified time period should not be dropped to ensure desired operation. In the case of BC7, WLAN beacons may be given relatively high priority over LTE Tx according to a heartbeat rate (i.e., how often the WLAN should hear the beacon). More particularly, a beacon may occur, e.g., for 10 ms every almost 100 ms. However, a certain number of beacons may be permitted to be missed according to the heartbeat rate. Thus, as long as WLAN receives one out of every N beacons (e.g., where N=20-40 and/or any other suitable value), WLAN performance may be deemed acceptable. In an alternative example, in the case of BC40, arbitration may be performed based on heartbeat priority. To halt LTE in such situations, LTE packets may be denied until the desired WLAN beacons have been received.

As shown in FIG. 10, a UE may actively communicate on a first radio access technology (RAT) as shown in block 1002. The UE may maintain a second RAT in an inactive state, as shown in block 1004. The UE may yield potentially interfering resources from the first RAT to the second RAT, as shown in block 1006. The UE may receive an activity indicator of the second RAT using the potentially interfering resources, as shown in block 1008.

A UE may comprise means for communicating, means for maintaining, means for yielding resources, and means for receiving an activity indicator. The communicating means may be the memory 272, processor 270, antenna 252 a-r, Rx data processor 260, Tx data processor 238, data source 236, transceivers 254 a-r, and/or modulator 280. The yielding means may be the transmit data processor 238 and/or the transceivers 254 a-r. The receiving means may be the antennas 252 a-r, receivers 254 a-r, and receive data processor 260. In another aspect, the aforementioned means may be a module or any apparatus configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

The examples above describe aspects implemented in an LTE system. However, the scope of the disclosure is not so limited. Various aspects may be adapted for use with other communication systems, such as those that employ any of a variety of communication protocols including, but not limited to, CDMA systems, TDMA systems, FDMA systems, and OFDMA systems.

It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the processes disclosed is an example of exemplary approaches. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the processes may be rearranged while remaining within the scope of the present disclosure. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

The previous description of the disclosed aspects is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. 

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising: actively communicating on a first radio access technology (RAT); maintaining a second RAT in an inactive state; yielding potentially interfering resources from the first RAT to the second RAT; and receiving an activity indicator of the second RAT using the potentially interfering resources.
 2. The method of claim 1 in which the first RAT comprises a long term evolution (LTE) radio and the second RAT comprises wireless local area network (WLAN) radio.
 3. The method of claim 2 further comprising yielding the potentially interfering resources so that the WLAN radio will receive a beacon after missing a predetermined number of beacons.
 4. The method of claim 1 in which the second RAT comprises a long term evolution (LTE) radio and the first RAT comprises a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio.
 5. The method of claim 4 further comprising delaying sending a control channel signal by the LTE radio until the WLAN radio becomes inactive.
 6. The method of claim 4 further comprising timing the yielding of potentially interfering resources to coincide with an LTE paging occasion.
 7. The method of claim 6 further comprising placing the WLAN radio into a power save mode and exchanging Power Save Poll messages between the WLAN radio and a WLAN access point for communications.
 8. An apparatus operable for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising: means for actively communicating on a first radio access technology (RAT); means for maintaining a second RAT in an inactive state; means for yielding potentially interfering resources from the first RAT to the second RAT; and means for receiving an activity indicator of the second RAT using the potentially interfering resources.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8 in which the second RAT comprises a long term evolution (LTE) radio and the first RAT comprises a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio and the apparatus further comprises means for timing the yielding of potentially interfering resources to coincide with an LTE paging occasion.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising means for placing the WLAN radio into a power save mode and exchanging Power Save Poll messages between the WLAN radio and a WLAN access point for communications.
 11. A computer program product configured for wireless communication, the computer program product comprising: a computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising: program code to actively communicate on a first radio access technology (RAT); program code to maintain a second RAT in an inactive state; program code to yield potentially interfering resources from the first RAT to the second RAT; and program code to receive an activity indicator of the second RAT using the potentially interfering resources.
 12. The computer program product of claim 11 in which the second RAT comprises a long term evolution (LTE) radio and the first RAT comprises a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio and the program code further comprises program code to time the yielding of potentially interfering resources to coincide with an LTE paging occasion.
 13. The computer program product of claim 12 in which the program code further comprising program code to place the WLAN radio into a power save mode and to exchange Power Save Poll messages between the WLAN radio and a WLAN access point for communications.
 14. An apparatus configured for operation in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor being configured: to actively communicate on a first radio access technology (RAT); to maintain a second RAT in an inactive state; to yield potentially interfering resources from the first RAT to the second RAT; and to receive an activity indicator of the second RAT using the potentially interfering resources.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14 in which the first RAT comprises a long term evolution (LTE) radio and the second RAT comprises wireless local area network (WLAN) radio.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15 in which the at least one processor is further configured to yield the potentially interfering resources so that the WLAN radio will receive a beacon after missing a predetermined number of beacons.
 17. The apparatus of claim 14 which the second RAT comprises a long term evolution (LTE) radio and the first RAT comprises a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio.
 18. The apparatus of claim 17 in which the at least one processor is further configured to delay sending a control channel signal by the LTE radio until the WLAN radio becomes inactive.
 19. The apparatus of claim 17 in which the at least one processor is further configured to yield of potentially interfering resources to coincide with an LTE paging occasion.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19 in which the at least one processor is further configured to place the WLAN radio into a power save mode and exchange Power Save Poll messages between the WLAN radio and a WLAN access point for communications. 